12. Remember then, my brethren, that Christ hath promised us eternal life: “This,” saith he, “is the promise which He hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written to you concerning them which seduce you.”189    1 John ii. 25, 26. Let none seduce you unto death: desire the promise of eternal life. What can the world promise? Let it promise what you will, it makes the promise perchance to one that tomorrow shall die. And with what face wilt thou go hence to Him that abideth for ever? “But a powerful man threatens me, so that I must do some evil.” What does he threaten? Prisons, chains, fires, torments, wild beasts: aye, but not eternal fire? Dread that which One Almighty threatens; love that which One Almighty promises; and all the world becomes vile in our regard, whether it promise or terrify. “These things have I written unto you concerning them which seduce you; that ye may know that ye have an unction, and the unction which we have received from Him may abide in you.”190    1 John ii. 26, 27. Ut sciatis quia unctionem habetis, et unctio quam accepimus ab eo permaneat in nobis. This reading, which is not found in the Greek copies, may have originated in the attempt to explain a difficult construction. The Vulgate keeps close to the Greek: Et vos unctionem quam accepistis ab eo maneat in vobis. In the unction we have the sacramental sign [of a thing unseen], the virtue itself is invisible;191    Unctionis sacramentum est, virtus ipsa invisibilis: i.e. the unction or chrism which we receive is a sacramentum, a thing in which, as Aug. defines the term, “aliud videtur, aliud intelligitur, one thing is seen, another understood.” “Aliud est sacramentum, aliud virtus sacramenti,” supra Hom. xxvi. 11. the invisible unction is the Holy Ghost; the invisible unction is that charity, which, in whomsoever it be, shall be as a root to him: however burning the sun, he cannot wither. All that is rooted is nourished by the sun’s warmth, not withered.

12. Mementote ergo, fratres mei, quia vitam aeternam nobis promisit Christus: Haec est, inquit, pollicitatio quam ipse pollicitus est nobis, vitam aeternam. Haec scripsi vobis de his qui vos seducunt. Nemo vos seducat 2004 ad mortem; promissionem vitae aeternae desiderate. Quid potest mundus promittere? Quidquid libet promittat, fortassis crastina morituro promittit. Et qua fronte ad illum qui manet in aeternum, exiturus es? Sed minatur mihi potens homo, ut aliquid mali faciam. Quid minatur? Carceres, catenas, ignes, tormenta, bestias: numquid ignem aeternum? Exhorresce quod minatur Omnipotens, ama quod pollicetur Omnipotens; et vilescit omnis mundus, sive promittens, sive terrens. Haec scripsi vobis de his qui vos seducunt; ut sciatis quia unctionem habetis, et unctio quam accepimus ab eo , permaneat in nobis. Unctionis sacramentum est, virtus ipsa invisibilis, unctio invisibilis, Spiritus sanctus; unctio invisibilis, charitas illa est quae in quocumque fuerit, tanquam radix illi erit, quamvis ardente sole arescere non potest. Omne quod radicatum est, nutritur calore solis, non arescit.